-0.67(-3.70%)

0.0000(-0.0000%)

If You Had Bought Archer (OB:ARCHER) Stock Five Years Ago, You'd Be Sitting On A 96% Loss, Today

Want to participate in a short research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card!

Long term investing is the way to go, but that doesn't mean you should hold every stock forever. It hits us in the gut when we see fellow investors suffer a loss. Imagine if you held Archer Limited (OB:ARCHER) for half a decade as the share price tanked 96%. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 50%. Shareholders have had an even rougher run lately, with the share price down 16% in the last 90 days.

We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson.

Because Archer is loss-making, we think the market is probably more focussed on revenue and revenue growth, at least for now. Shareholders of unprofitable companies usually expect strong revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth.

In the last five years Archer saw its revenue shrink by 21% per year. That's definitely a weaker result than most pre-profit companies report. So it's not altogether surprising to see the share price down 47% per year in the same time period. We don't think this is a particularly promising picture. Of course, the poor performance could mean the market has been too severe selling down. That can happen.

You can see how earnings and revenue have changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 1.5% in the twelve months, Archer shareholders did even worse, losing 50%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 47% over the last half decade. Generally speaking long term share price weakness can be a bad sign, though contrarian investors might want to research the stock in hope of a turnaround. If you would like to research Archer in more detail then you might want to take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares in the company.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on NO exchanges.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.